


The 120 Year Old Mystery

by Small_Hobbit



Series: A Study By Ghosts [4]
Category: Sherlock (TV), Sherlock Holmes - Arthur Conan Doyle
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-04
Updated: 2019-10-25
Packaged: 2020-11-23 20:09:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 2,853
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20895410
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Small_Hobbit/pseuds/Small_Hobbit
Summary: Sally Donovan has a problem.  Help comes from an unexpected source.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is written for DW's Watson's Woes 'Spooktacular' Challenge.
> 
> Dr Watson, Sherlock Holmes, Inspector Lestrade and Stanley Hopkins are ghosts from ACD's Victorian times. They are now living in the modern era, but their counterparts do not exist.

DS Sally Donovan looked around the empty room. Her colleagues had all gone home, which was understandable, they had done all they could until forensics came back with more details. The witnesses, such as there were, had given contradictory accounts. That wasn’t deliberate, they’d been asked to think back to an event which hadn’t seemed at all important at the time and most of them had had other things uppermost in their minds when it had happened.

Sally wasn’t sure why she had stayed. It was true she didn’t have family to go home to, and she wasn’t interested in the big football game which some of them were taking the opportunity to watch, but there was something else. It was simply that it was so odd: a mother had taken her children to school two days before and then disappeared. Since then there had been potential sightings of the mother in places she was known to have connections with, but no-one had spoken to her.

What had been particularly unsettling, as far as Sally was concerned, was when they had been making enquiries, one elderly lady had told her about a similar event which had happened forty years before, and had added, “At the time there were those who said it reminded them of something which happened in 1939, although of course that was the beginning of the war, so people thought perhaps she’d gone to family in the country.”

Sally closed her eyes to think. She felt the room grow colder and she opened her eyes again to see what looked like a ghost. She blinked several times, but the ghost remained, examining the details written on the whiteboard.

“It’s very strange,” the ghost said. “Holmes had a very similar problem in 1899. He never found a satisfactory solution to it.”


	2. Chapter 2

“I was thinking of taking another look at the place she disappeared from,” Sally said. Then she shook her head. She must be more tired than she realised if she was talking to a ghost.

“Excellent idea,” the ghost replied. “We’ll come with you.”

“We?” She might as well play along, if her imagination was overactive it could help find a solution.

“Yes, the others are around here somewhere. And don’t worry, you aren’t going mad. We do exist, it’s just unusual for anyone to be able to see us. I’m Dr Watson, by the way.”

“I’m DS Sally Donovan.”

“Yes, I know. We’ve been watching you for a while.”

Sally gave a small laugh. “Everyone says this place is haunted. But it seemed a good excuse for when things disappeared unexpectedly rather than a fact.”

“Yes, we were aware we were being blamed for rather a lot of things. And no, they aren’t all our fault. But didn’t you say you were planning on going back to where the woman disappeared?”

“I did. Um, how do you travel?”

“We’ll come in your car. Don’t worry, no-one will see us. Just remember not to turn round to tell them off if they start arguing in the back seat.”

Sally walked down to where her car was parked. She wondered briefly whether she should open a door for the ghosts, decided against it and then realised, as she switched the engine on, that they were already inside the car.

As she drove, Dr Watson, who was sitting in the passenger seat next to her, explained that the others were Mr Sherlock Holmes, Inspector Lestrade and Inspector Hopkins. He then tried to explain how they had come into existence, with helpful comments from the back seat, but in the end, Sally said she’d accept their presence without worrying about how they came to be there.

She parked the car and then made her way into the square which was the last place her missing woman had been seen. It was like a number of similar squares which are dotted around London: a couple of wooden benches, a few trees, several bushes which were losing their leaves and some flower beds which were looking bare now the summer was passed.

She could vaguely make out the ghostly forms around her. Holmes, Watson and Lestrade were standing on the path pointing out the route which their missing woman had taken, which reminded Sally uncomfortably about her own case. When she asked, they confirmed it had also been a Tuesday, and the timing was identical. The only difference seemed to be that the previous woman had left two small girls, whilst the current one had had a boy and a girl.

Suddenly, Hopkins called out, “Come over here!”

The three ghosts moved to the corner of the garden, and Sally went with them. Hopkins was scraping away some earth and pointing to what looked like a little wooden cross.

Sally went to pick it up, but Watson said, “Don’t touch it.”

She pulled her hand back and said, “Why not?”

“See those symbols? They’re to remember a murder victim. One whose body was taken away.”

“For burial?”

“Oh no. For dissection by medical students.”

“But that’s illegal.”

“It didn’t stop it happening.”

“Is that what happened in the case you were involved with?” 

“No,” Holmes replied. “By then it wouldn’t have happened. But it’s quite possible it occurred in 1859.”

“Why then?”

“There’s been a recurrence every forty years, which, if mine was the first occasion, puts this to 1859.”

“But my case involves a real woman, with real children, who I still need to find.”

“As did mine,” Holmes said. “But I think they are all linked. If I can establish the connection, then there is a chance we can find your missing woman. I shall get onto it at once.”

“And what should I do?” Sally said. “I can hardly say the case involves a potential murder victim from 1859 and there’s a ghost investigating for me.”

“I would suggest you continue as you have been doing. It is possible you may turn up something useful.”

Sally nodded. “We’ll proceed as we normally would in this sort of case. And now I think I shall go home. Um, can I give you a lift anywhere?”

“221B Baker Street, if it wouldn’t take you too much out of your way, Sergeant,” Watson said.

There was a slight muttering and then three ghostly voices said at once, “No, Hopkins, you do not get to ride in the front seat.”


	3. Chapter 3

The following morning Sally worked away at the various documents on her desk, hoping to find even the smallest lead. As she moved one piece of paper, she spotted a note which said, ‘Can you come to Baker Street?’

She stood up and said, “I’m just going to follow up a potential witness.”

One of the other officers looked up and said, “Do you want me to come with you?”

“No, it’s probably somebody who hasn’t got the ghost of an idea, but I can’t afford to ignore it.”

“Okay!”

She went down to her car and slid inside. She wasn’t surprised to see Hopkins sitting in the passenger seat waiting for her. 

“Are you on your own?” she asked.

“Yes,” Hopkins replied. “I’m the one who gets sent with messages. I’m the youngest you see.”

“Oh, right.”

Sally drove them both to Baker Street. It wasn’t the easiest of journeys. Hopkins was one minute pressed up against the windscreen looking at the traffic in front, the next minute he was kneeling up on the seat looking out of the back window as a bus and a taxi carved each other up. Sally was relieved when she arrived and was able to park.

“This way,” Hopkins said, as she got out of the car.

He led her down a narrow passageway which took them round the back of the house. When she arrived at the back door she stood still, uncertain what to do next.

“It’s unlocked,” Hopkins told her.

She tried the door, which opened, so she stepped inside.

There, she was greeted by Dr Watson. “Good morning, Sergeant. Sorry you had to come in the back way but opening the front door to visitors can be a bit tricky.”

“That’s quite all right,” Sally said.

“Are you sure?” Watson asked. “You look a bit shaken. Wait a minute, you didn’t let Hopkins go in the front, did you?”

“He was waiting there when I got in.”

“Oh dear, we should have warned you.”

“That’s okay, I’ll know another time.”

Watson led the way upstairs and into a sitting room. “Have a seat,” he said, indicating a brown leather sofa.

Sally sat down and looked around her. It wasn’t the sort of room she would have expected to find four Victorian ghosts living in.

“The current occupants are out at work,” a voice said suddenly. Sally looked up to see Lestrade standing by the fireplace. “Don’t worry, they’re used to slightly odd things happening, so they won’t think anyone’s been here. Holmes thought it would be the easiest place to talk without being noticed.”

Sally saw that Holmes had joined them, and was sitting in one of the armchairs, with Watson occupying the other. Hopkins was sitting on a dining chair.

“Thank you for coming, Sergeant,” Holmes said. “It’s not been easy to find anything about the original case, simply because it was almost certainly never documented at the time, for obvious reasons. However, I found reference to an archived journal of a medical student. The journal had been written around 1859, so Watson and I went to take a look at it.”

Watson took up the tale. “The journal has a number of drawings of both limbs and internal organs. They are clearly not all taken from the same body, but it is highly possible that some would once have been our poor woman.”

“In addition,” Holmes said, “the student had written various thoughts as he worked on his dissections. One such read: _Rose Taylor. She must have been about the same age as my sister. I cannot allow such thoughts to come into my mind when I work, or I will fail to do my job properly_.”

Sally gasped. “But Rose Taylor is the name of the woman I’m looking for.”

“As it was mine,” Holmes said.


	4. Chapter 4

“So where does that leave us?” Sally said. “Or me, at any rate. I don’t seem to be any further forward.”

“The original Rose Taylor was dissected at the London Hospital,” Holmes said. “I think the first place to look should be that hospital, or the Royal London as it is now known.”

“But we’ve circulated all the main hospitals with her description,” Sally objected.

“It is entirely possible she doesn’t look the same now,” Watson said. “And, of course, she may not be alive.”

“Better that we identify her, even if she is dead,” Sally said. “At least that way the family will know.”

Watson nodded.

“My suggestion is this,” Holmes added. “We will go to the hospital and see if we can locate her. If we do we will send you a text message.”

“What?” Sally looked disbelieving.

“We use prestidigitation,” Hopkins said.

“Hopkins!”

“All right, but I like the word - you would say slight of hand - to borrow a phone and I send a message. It has to be short though. So ‘Found her’.”

“And then I come to the hospital?” Sally replied.

“Exactly,” Holmes nodded.

“There is one more thing,” Lestrade said. “Do you remember the cross we saw in the gardens of the square where she disappeared?”

“Yes.”

“It had no name on it. We think we need to replace the cross with one saying Rose Taylor. We can arrange for a cross to be made, but it will be up to you to get your Rose Taylor to touch it and then you’ll need to replace the old cross.”

“I thought Dr Watson told me not to touch that cross.”

“This will be a replacement rather than a removal.”

Sally nodded. “All right. I’ll do it.” It sounded bizarre, but nothing about the case was normal, and if it had a positive outcome, she was prepared to try it.

She drove back to the Yard, went into a coffee shop nearby to buy a sandwich, and then returned to the work she had left earlier. A bit later, she was eating the sandwich when one of the office staff brought a package in for her. Sally opened the package at one end and peered inside. There was a small wooden cross with Rose Taylor written on it in poker work. She slipped the package into her bag ready for when it was needed.

A couple of hours later, she heard her phone ping and looked at the message. It said simply, “Found her”. She smiled.

She left the office, stopping by her inspector’s room to let him know where she was going.

“I thought we’d had negative responses from all the hospitals,” he said.

“We did. Call it a hunch,” Sally said, hoping he wasn’t going to demand more information.

“Fair enough. We’ve got nothing better to go on, so you might as well check it out.”

“Thank you, sir.”

She drove to the hospital and went into the front entrance. She was about to approach the main desk when she saw Hopkins beckoning to her. She followed him to the lifts and joined the group of people who all pushed their way in when the lift arrived. She was momentarily nonplussed when someone asked her which floor she wanted, but then she noticed the button marked 5 light up by itself. 

“Fifth,” she said.

She got off at the fifth floor and saw Dr Watson waiting for her. He led the way into one of the wards. Inside the ward, a nurse stopped her, so Sally showed her warrant card and indicated a woman lying in one of the beds.

“What can you tell me about her?” Sally asked the nurse.

“She was admitted three days ago. She was found unconscious and brought into A&E by ambulance. We think she must have been living rough for at least a month. She either can’t, or won’t, give us a name. She’ll be discharged to a hostel as soon as they can find her a place.”

“Thank you. May I go and speak to her?”

“Of course. Just don’t expect any reply.”

Sally went over to the patient she had indicated to the nurse. Holmes was sitting on one side of the bed, Lestrade on the other. She bent over, as if addressing the woman in the bed, before saying, “You’re sure it’s her?”

Holmes nodded.

Cautiously, Sally took the cross out of the package and placed it in the woman’s hand. The woman’s fingers curled round it briefly and then relaxed. Sally slipped the cross back into its cover.

Then she walked back to the nurses’ desk and handed over her card. “Can you let me know when she’s discharged and where she goes to, please.”

The nurse glanced at the card. “Certainly, sergeant.”

Sally walked back to the lift, accompanied by the three ghosts. She got in and wasn’t at all surprised to see the Ground Floor button light up before she had a chance to push it.

She led the way to her car. A voice close to her ear said, “Can I …”

“No,” she said, together with the other three ghosts. She was not letting Hopkins in the front.

She drove back to the square and parked nearby. There were a number of people walking across the square, and she felt slightly self-conscious as she walked over the grass to where the cross was. However, no-one paid any attention to her, everyone hurrying on their own business.

She took the little cross out of her bag and planted it in front of the other one. As she did so she felt a slight tingling in her fingers, and then the old cross disintegrated. As she was standing back up, her phone rang.

“Donovan,” she said.

“Sergeant Donovan, this is Nurse Telford from the Royal London. The patient you visited has just sat up and told us her name. It’s Rose Taylor. She’s still a bit confused but has given us her husband’s name and telephone number. Do you want us to contact him, or will you do so?”

“I’ll do that. She’s on our missing person’s list and we’ll have a few questions for her, but I’m sure she can be discharged as soon as you’re satisfied she’s medically fit.”

Sally ended the call and then said to the four ghosts. “Thank you, all of you. I’m sure this will be written down as simply some form of mental aberration, but without your help Rose Taylor would never have got back to her family.”

“You played your part too, Sergeant Donovan,” Holmes said.

“Indeed,” Watson added. “You helped lay the first Rose Taylor to final rest.”

Sally smiled and walked back across the square. As she got into her car she smiled again, having seen Hopkins on the top deck of a bus waving at her.


End file.
